Greed

It is probably best just to assess this satirical comedy on a superficial level; otherwise the hypocrisy is overwhelming. Steve Coogan plays a self made gaziliionaire who is organising a no expense spared celebrity 60th birthday party for himself on Mykonos. In cahoots with his ex-wife Isla Fisher and his mother Shirley Henderson we are exposed to the most vulgar and crass aspects of the mega-rich lifestyle in which they live whilst at the same time exploiting just about everyone that they come into contact with - regardless of gender, education or ethnicity. Jamie Blackley "Young Richard" takes what plaudits there are in this. He is expelled from his posh private school school for regularly fleecing the other pupils; next he is fleecing those in the London rag trade before setting up a discount store that sets the ball rolling for his future billion pound enterprise. Coogan is good as the odious and exploitative "McCreadie"; David Mitchell really wooden as his autobiographer "Nick" and we have a few scenes for Asa Butterfield as his slightly geeky son "Finn" but the rest of this has mis-information and double standards written all over it. The comedy is obvious; the constant parodies from "Gladiator" (quite why the lines spoken in that film by Richard Harris were being delivered by Coogan is an Australian accent was a bit puzzling) grate after a while and the ending just downright ridiculous. If it is attempting some sort of social commentary on how the wealthy get rich on the backs of others then it needed to be much better informed and make some attempt to reconcile the aspirations of rich and poor alike - as well as those of the ever-thrifty, something for nothing consumers living in countries of the "west" and their mind-numbingly incompetent legislators.